Shrews Fan In Peace

Quoted from mariner91

Just find out it bizarre how some of our fans are still adamant that Hurst wasn't particularly good and that they didn't like him but thought that Bignot might have been the answer. the evidence suggests that couldn't be further from the truth.

I didn't say he wasn't particularly good, just that i didn't like him or his footballing philosophy.

I get it. You think that my views on Bignot are so wrong that my views on anyone else are not to be taken seriously.

Quite the opposite. The fact your analysis of games is usually pretty good in my opinion is why I find it confusing that your views on the two respective managers are so wrong. Again, in my opinion.

I would agree that there wasn't always much flair from Hurst's teams but they were methodical and like Forza summed up well the other day, he played the percentage game knowing he had the quality in the squad that would win through enough times to almost guarantee a play off spot. You could at least see under Hurst that the team was organised, disciplined and had a game plan even if that game plan wasn't always that exciting. It seems to have been airbrushed out of history but nearly every game under Bignot was met my comments about how people still didn't have a clue what the game plan was or how we were meant to be set up. Before a game, you couldn't predict the formation we were going to play let alone who was going to play where. He didn't have a lot of time but 27 games is enough to have a basic format and style of play implemented yet there was no evidence of one. We dodged a bullet in my opinion.

Quoted from ginnywings

I Give me the philosophy of a Buckley over a Hurst every single time.

I was just thinking something similar yesterday whilst listening to the radio commentary. A couple of times, when we had the ball in promising positions, Buckley remarked that we needed to get a little ball into the striker's feet through the gaps between defenders, and then get the midfielder to look for a return whilst running on. Classic Buckley model football, a la Tony Rees, Dave Gilbert etc. I thought yeah - this is exactly what is missing from the teams of Slade, Bignot and Hurst. Instead of course, we just hit a hopeful channel ball and the promise comes to nothing more often than not. I too am a believer in this strategy favoured by Buckley and others.

As for Hurst - got to be fair, he's a good manager who looks like he might become very good. Great result for them yesterday too. I just got sick of him really. He finally got us up and that was fantastic, but boy I thought he made hard, boring work of it. I was glad for him and us when he moved on.

After all this time, I still can't make up my mind about Bignot. Did we dodge a bullet or would I have liked to see how this season would go with his new summer signings? I don't agree with players running to the chairman especially with contracts up for grabs, but there may have been other background events that made his dismissal academic.

I've read both Ginny's and 91's points of view and find myself agreeing with both..

Quoted from mariner91

Quite the opposite. The fact your analysis of games is usually pretty good in my opinion is why I find it confusing that your views on the two respective managers are so wrong. Again, in my opinion.

I would agree that there wasn't always much flair from Hurst's teams but they were methodical and like Forza summed up well the other day, he played the percentage game knowing he had the quality in the squad that would win through enough times to almost guarantee a play off spot. You could at least see under Hurst that the team was organised, disciplined and had a game plan even if that game plan wasn't always that exciting. It seems to have been airbrushed out of history but nearly every game under Bignot was met my comments about how people still didn't have a clue what the game plan was or how we were meant to be set up. Before a game, you couldn't predict the formation we were going to play let alone who was going to play where. He didn't have a lot of time but 27 games is enough to have a basic format and style of play implemented yet there was no evidence of one. We dodged a bullet in my opinion.

But they are not wrong, merely opinion.

Quoted from ginnywings

But they are not wrong, merely opinion.

Fair enough, we'll have to agree to disagree.

Quoted from mariner91

Fair enough, we'll have to agree to disagree.

Aye.

The issue is that the lack of transparency from the club has led to a considerable amount of speculation and nobody knows for sure what the reality is/was.This leads to people adding their own narrative.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

Quoted from ginnywings

I was never a fan of Hurst because for me, it's manager's like him who make the beautiful game ugly. His must not lose attitude and his love of clean sheets makes for a very dull spectacle. There has to be room in the game for flair and a certain element of the unexpected. Hurst football very rarely will get you out of your seat and send you home buzzing about a game. Some fans are happy enough with that and that's ok, but for me, football isn't solely about results. Hurst struck me as a manager that would be happy with 1 win and 2 draws from 3 games. especially if they were all clean sheets. He would rather win a game 1-0 than 3-2, which statistically is the same, but a whole different world for the fan who craves a bit of excitement.

The last decade, of which Hurst was a significant part, has been mind numbingly dull from a football fan's point of view. Very little to get the pulses racing and i feel a certain unattachment at BP because of it. Give me the philosophy of a Buckley over a Hurst every single time.

I know you weren't a fan Ginny but I think you have selective memory.

There were many edge of the seat games and glorious performances - as well as pragmatic grinding out results. But then isn't there exactly that with 95% of all football managers? And I think we sometimes get muddled between a manager's personality and his teams' performances.

Marcus Bignot has one of the most sunny, charismatic personalities we've ever had at Blundell Park, but the dross served up by his teams was quite comfortably some of the worst football I've seen as a fan over 50 years. And yes, your good friend Paul Hurst was dour, but let's not forget beating Stevenage 5-2 in our first couple of months back in the football league, or beating Halifax 7-0, or Gateshead 6-1 away, or the play-off final itself which, given the nervousness of the occasion saw Town NOT dig their heels in at 2-1, but take the game by the throat, culminating in Nathan Arnold getting Town's third goal. And there were many more...

And it's also grossly unfair to compare him with Buckley as that was a different era when players' contracts were more permanent and we didn't have to chop and change the squad every season. So Buckley had the luxury of bedding in players and keeping the nucleus of the team over several seasons. Given that players these days sodomist off as soon as a new nightclub opens in a different town, it's remarkable that Hurst was able to keep finding gems on a regular basis.

So I look at our current situation and I will always support Town through thick and thin, good managers and bad, but history will judge Paul Hurst favourably during his time here, and it might not be too long Ginny before you are wishing he was still in charge.

.

I think some supporters need to understand that most teams at our level and below do not play Buckley style football.

The Hurst style actually worked to our advantage as once that tw@t Scott left we became possibly the best "away team" consistently in that league for 3 seasons.

With teams coming to BP on a week in week out basis just concerned with stopping us playing rather than beating us the home form suffered and made the need to be solid and edge wins away more relevant.

Though at times I agree it was not pretty whilst battling against the 1 year deal culture that now exists he built a squad with good fitness, work ethic, morale and team spirit which was destroyed pretty quickly by that clown Bignot who was possibly one of the most insincere and careless managers we have ever had.

I find it odd that people have a pop at Hurst now he has gone when to a man none of them where moaning about him when Nathan banged in the 3rd at Wembley, fickle or hypocritical? I often wonder?